I’ve been working for days on a spreadsheet for my publisher, listing not only my media contacts and influential acquaintances — all of whom will receive advance copies of my book in hopes that they will read it and subsequently say good things to thousands of book-buying citizens — but also renowned parents. The thought is, since this is a book about faith and raising children and just trying to get by in life when the whole world seems sometimes like it wants to chew you up, that we might send copies of the book to said personages in hopes that, by virtue of being parents, they’ll be inclined to give the book a read and then perhaps mention it to a few thousand of their closest friends.
So here I sit, hunched over my laptop in our luxurious wooded headquarters at an undisclosed location in the heartland. It occurs to me that I should read the list to Wife, in case she has an idea or two. When I finish, the woman who took all of two economics classes in her undergraduate and graduate careers tells me, the political science PhD who often teaches economics concepts, that I ought to ask you, the brilliant masses, for your ideas. Harness the power of the crowd, in other words.
I hate when she has a good idea that I should have thought of first.
So what do you think? Who are famous parents who come to mind when you think of the intersection between faithful striving and dedicated parenting?